Best way to clear trees & brush

I am wondering what the best way to clear 12 inch trees and brush with my backhoe. I have 100m x 100m patch of thick undergrowth and trees to clear.

My method to clear would be to use my 400mm bucket with tiger teeth to pop the trees out. I was thinking of putting the pulled trees in rows, much like a hay field. I wanted to keep pulling myself along with the bucket.

Is this a good approach to the job?

Yair . . . FarmerAlex. I have no experience at all at using a back-hoe for clearing but I think most folks would use the front bucket to push and stack.

With the larger trees you can dig one side with the back-hoe if they are too big to easily push.


Windrows or heaps makes little difference, the vegetation will tell you where it wants to be, unless there are good reasons it doesn't pay to fight it.


Take care, this could be a dangerous task . . . particularly if you try to push trees reaching up with the backhoe. In fact I would advise against that practice until you get some experience.

Others on here with experience on back-hoes and small excavators are more qualified to speak about the dangers inherent on using such techniques. Even a twelve inch tree is a substantial piece of timber and on a light machine like a back-hoe should not be taken lightly.

Cheers.

Team up with someone whose good with a chainsaw. Put some pressure (use back end) against the tree in the direction you want it to go. Keep pushing little by little to keep pressure while the cutting is done, soon enough the tree will go. Cut all your trees first, clear them, and then go after stumps. Cut your stumps low, it reduces the size and makes it easier to handle. The smaller your bucket, the better the breakout.

We bought a Christmas tree farm a couple of years ago with about 900 Fraser firs and 1-1/2 acres of White Pine. All the trees are no good and I have been taking them down using a Case 580SE. The Fraser Firs are about 7-14 feet and 4-6 inch trunks. I can just drive into them with the bucket and knock down a row like thump, thump, thump. It's fun but leaves a mess. The trees go over but half the roots stay in the ground. I have to either come back and play with the bucket to get them out but it takes lots of time or just grab them with the hoe bucket much faster. Warning, if you just use the hoe bucket the tree will get you in the face. For some reason the top always fly's into the cab.

The larger White pines, (12"+ trunks and over 30' tall) are a different story. If it is real wet, the ground is soaked I can push them over using the hoe bucket, roots an all. However if the area is not wet the trunk breaks and now I have to dig it completely out. Best to dig one side and up root it.

I have a big pile of trees that we will burn next year and I was dragging a Pine to the pile. I use a long strap, it was rigged to long in this case and the tree was about 12" with a root ball. I had it hooked to the front bucket and in order to move backwards I had to raise the bucket high. (I can just see some of you pro's cringing and saying"oh no"). With the bucket high and going back I hit a rut and the hoe went up on two wheels sideways. For a split second I thought I was going over, passed the point of no return. My wife screamed and with luck I hit the down lever. Then went and cleaned myself up . I guess you learn by experience that is if you live. I could have easily killed my self and didn't take that event lightly. It will never happen again.

Think well in advance before you hurt yourself removing trees, you don't want to lose an eye or kill yourself. I have a Ratchet Rake and it works good on brush. Also we use from the Tractor Supply store (Gordon's Pronto Big N' Tuf 41% Glyphosate Weed & Grass Killer, 2-1/2 gal.) It cost $60, $50 on sale and it does the job. Takes about two weeks to see things dying but they don't come back. 41% Glyphosate is the same as in Round Up.

I have some rock work to do as well, starting to think that a bigger excavator may be needed. The hoe is great for most jobs and i really like it, except it is slow on the road, especially the hills, killing its only advantage.. So what size hoe is a good compromise?

Yair . . . JS580SL

Team up with someone whose good with a chainsaw. Put some pressure (use back end) against the tree in the direction you want it to go. Keep pushing little by little to keep pressure while the cutting is done, soon enough the tree will go. Cut all your trees first, clear them, and then go after stumps. Cut your stumps low, it reduces the size and makes it easier to handle. The smaller your bucket, the better the breakout

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Mate, that post fails on most counts.

pretty dangerous I think to have an operator with a chainsaw working under a bucket.

Quite apart from that, the object of the exercise is to use the trunk of the tree as a lever to tip out the roots, chain sawing trees and digging the stumps out is azz-backwards inefficient.

No matter though, we all do things different.

I do take issue though (apart from maybe an awkward one off situation) at any advise to have a chainsaw working under a bucket or a blade.

Stay safe.

Cheers.

I posted with out finishing. Working together is for when your nervous about which direction the tree will go. I am by no means a logger or tree cutting expert myself and sometimes a little push with the machine makes me more comfortable.

Around here, we would cut all the trees first and keep stumps and tree separate. I prefer to have the trunk cut as low as possible. If the stumps will be loaded out in trucks it saves room. Here we wouldn't burn off trees or stumps. It would all end up going to a mill, in a tub grinder, or chipped on site.

I can't imagine cutting the tree if it can be dropped roots and all. It seems like a lot of extra work. Dig one side, push it over, drag it to where ever and cut it up if need be.

You can try cutting them down and then digging the stumps, as js580 suggests, but its been my experience that the weight of the tree helps immensely in popping the stump, especially after a good rain.

If it was my project to do, first Id dig a big hole, bout 30' long, 15' wide, and 10 feet deep, sloped to one end. That's so you can bail the water out. Then I'd dig a trench off it maybe 30' - 100' long and put some 6" pipe in it preferable steel, and definatly steel at the end, and daylight it. Then hook a leaf blower to the pipe, this will feed the fire air.

Push / dig the trees out, shake what dirt you can off and then push the entire tree into the burn hole, get a good fire going, add the leaf blower and go get another tree....

Sounds like a great idea stumpjumper, wish we could get away with that in my area.

Well i will be attacking it tomorrow, got 3 days to get it piled and cleared. A few long days ahead...

What I have been doing is digging in front of the tree and then pushing it down with the backhoe, then cut the stump off above ground. Sure saves digging them darn stumps!

Yeah, I sure wouldn't cut them down first unless I was trying not to damage high grade logs, and even then I usually just dig extra so it takes less pressure to put it down.

The extra leverage makes a world of difference in prying the stump out.

Last fall I cleared a 10 acrea citrus grove with 547 6-8" trees, 8-12' tall. I used the front loader to push as high as possible - usually at 6-8' - to use the leverage to topple the tree. Then backed up and again used the loader on ghe exposed root ball to push and lift it out and rip the remaining roots. Your ground conditions will dictate how fast and successful you will be. I only had to dig a half dozen or so with the hoe.
Make sure you're in low gear and 4 wheel drive lock. Ocassional diff lock may be needed as well.
After a few attempts you will find the point of contact needed to fell the tree and the best direction to push them. Keep track of any overhead limbs that could come loose, and try to share the load squarely on your loader an bucket to prevent damage.
Good luck.
Another thing to watch when gathering downed trees and limb is getting a limb stuck in you rear tire lugs, and having it roll up into the fender or underneath thr tractor which can cause damage.
It's a lot of work, but pay attention to what you're doing, and don't get carried away.
547 citrus trees took me 4.5 days to clear and stack for burning.

I have taken out about a hundred trees by myself with my T/L/b. Most of them were 12 to 24 inches in diameter. Elm trees are the hardest to remove because of the long tough roots that go out away from the trunk. I always dig around the entire tree. The depth depends on the size of the tree. I put a pile of dirt on the side of the hole, in the direction I want to drop the tree. I then position the T/L/B in such a way that I can reach high up on the trunk and push it over. If it is done correctly it is perfectly safe for me and the machine. Also the stump will be ripped loose, and most of the time it will lifted slightly because of the leverage effect of the trunk going over and onto the pile of dirt. It is quite easy then to saw the stump off.
It is time consuming , but I never have never had to deal with a stump anchored firmly in the ground which is real time consuming. Most of the time I would roll the stump out of the hole. Dig the hole about two feet deeper and bury the stump. If I had access to stump grinder it would sure make things faster and simpler. But that would just add more expense to the removal.

FarmerAlex said:

I have some rock work to do as well, starting to think that a bigger excavator may be needed. The hoe is great for most jobs and i really like it, except it is slow on the road, especially the hills, killing its only advantage.. So what size hoe is a good compromise?

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What hoe are you using Farmer Alex?

I would rather cut down trees, leave the stump and tear it out with the hoe, than knock it down with the hoe. Now knocking down trees with a tracked dozer is another matter. It's just unsafe without a full cage. Trees sometimes have a mind of their own. The next best would be to notch it and tear out the ground and roots in the direction you want it to fall...but then, why not just cut it down?

Yair . . . Lots of opinions here FarmerAlex. As I have mentioned on other threads there is no "right" or "wrong" way when it comes to clearing. I guess it's a case of going with what you are comfortable with.

Work safe and don't forget to post us some pictures of work in progress.

Cheers.

I agree with catback.

Well some times it pays to walk into the area and look around, could be a rock pile in there or a old pit, or whatever. Take a steel rod and test the ground, see it the root system is bound together. I sure you will get the job done, sam.